The healthy guide to beer

Pints are ridiculously expensive: we all know that. But according to CAMRA, prices have gotten so high that low sales are forcing 21 pubs a week to close down.

Excessive boozing is going to hurt your workout routine and cost you a fortune. But drinking in moderation can help you bulk up. If you're planning on protecting your muscles and wallet by swilling selectively, then what should be your beer of choice? Here’s our guide.

What’ll it be?

Pull up a stool, we’re buying. Thanks to the craft beer revolution there’s often nothing purer in your diet than a pint. In fact, it’s little more than water, with a healthy dose of malt, hops and yeast (plus tax). And the high quality means people savour it. “The rise of craft beer reflects the trend for drinking less, but trading up on quality,” says Rod Jones, brewer at Meantime Brewing Company. We would say choose your poison, but it doesn’t seem right.

Porter
Crafted from a mix of ales, Porter’s taste is special, as are its benefits. It is full of melanoidins, which fight disease, according to research from the University of Porto. “The darker the beer, the more there are,” says Dan Bloxham, quality officer at BrewDog. And Porter is dark. TO ØL Black Ball Porter £3.50 brewdog.com

Pilsner
The most popular beer the world over, and with good reason. The University of Vienna found Pilsner creates less gastric acid than other beers, which means less bloating to you. Meantime Pilsner £19.50 for 12 meantimebrewing.com

India pale ale
The aficionado’s choice due to its depth of flavour, “IPAs have the highest silicon content,” says Bloxham, which strengthens your bones, according to research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Useful after one too many. Punk IPA £18.50 for 12 brewdog.com

Lager
It’s time to reclaim lager’s rep as the binger’s manna and the health fascist’s demon. 2011’s Best Beer In The World creates a foam that locks in nutrients and flavour. Weihenstephan Vitus £3.29 beersofeurope.co.uk

Crafty Storage

As if all the breakages weren’t enough, beer in a green bottle is bad because it doesn’t block UV rays. The light reacts with hops to create a compound one molecule away from a skunk’s spray. But brown bottles stop photo-oxidation. On to enjoying it. If you want to open like a pro, the Drop Catch Bottle Opener (£38 dropandcatch.com) allows for the quick cap removal you see from the deft hands of top barmen, plus a magnet stops the caps becoming a kitchen floor mosaic. Keeping it cool is the last challenge, but science has your back: drop the Chillsner by Corkcicle (£25 for two root7.com) into your bottle, and it’ll stay cold for as long as you need it to.

Get a head

Don’t blow off the importance of the foam top on your pint. It acts as a barrier for compounds that evaporate from beer, such as hop oils, which can affect flavour. Whatever glass you have, the most important thing is that it’s clean. “This ensures good head retention and lacing – the foam leftover – which means your beer head was well formed in the first place,” says Jones. It also happens to lock in all of the beneficial nutrients. Bottoms up.

Garden beer
For days on the move (at a game, the park, or a particularly boring wedding), pour your favourite brew into the Brewery Beer Growler (£5 brewdog.com), which keeps your craft carbonated and chilled for a wonderful 24 hours. For anyone who’s ever suffered the indignity of a pint of warm froth on the football pitch sidelines, the appeal of this is more than obvious.

The golden chalice
The single most important purchase you can make is a Bacchus Poco Grande tulip beer glass (£17 for six drinkstuff.com), which aids the perfect pour. “The top of the glass forms a lip to make room for and capture the head. Plus the stem prevents your warms hands heating the beer and the shape channels the aroma,” says Jones. It looks pro, too.

Stay cool, bud
If you’re a tankard man (and let’s be honest, who isn’t?), you can now employ physics at home by investing in a Stein of Science (from £150 funraniumlabs.com). Created by a cryogenics technician with a real penchant for a good pour – and an icy cold one at that – these tankards make it impossible for your beer to go warm. Scientifically impossible.

Men's Health, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network
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